Papers of Laurence E. Peterson, professor of physics, leader of the High Energy Astronomy
Group, and director (1988-1997) of the UCSD Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences
(CASS). Peterson was involved in the planning and design of experiments and instruments
onboard such NASA spacecraft as the Orbiting Solar Observatories, the High Energy
Astronomical Observatory, Apollo 15 and 16, the Space Shuttle and the Hubble Space
Telescope. He was a pioneer in the exploration of hard x-ray energy radiation, and he led
the CASS High Energy Astronomy Group in its development of large area phoswich
scintillation x-ray and high resolution gamma-ray detectors. The papers span the dates
1954-1994 and include pre-doctoral work, teaching materials, consulting work, editorial
papers, presentations, and publications. Absent from the collection are research project
files, research proposals and materials documenting Peterson's directorship of CASS. The papers are arranged in seven series:
1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3)
WRITINGS, 4) EDITING, REVIEWING AND CONSULTING, 5) UCSD MATERIALS, 6) MEETINGS,
CONFERENCES AND COMMITTEES and 7) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES. The accession processed in 2000 contains notebooks
(1963-1995) and teaching materials
(1989-1993).

Background

Laurence Peterson was born in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, on July 26, 1931. He received his
bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1954 and
completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics at the University of Minnesota in 1956
and 1960, respectively. His dissertation was based on determining the energy spectrum of
cosmic-ray protons and helium nuclei over Guam, a scientific ballooning experiment. He
remained at the University of Minnesota as a research assistant until 1962, when he came
to UCSD as an assistant professor of physics, working in the area of high energy
astrophysics.